DMV Lists Thousands Of Cars In Wrong Municipality

DMV's long-running computer nightmare is also causing major problems for local tax assessors, who say tens of thousands of vehicles have been listed in the wrong municipality.

HARTFORD — The state Department of Motor Vehicles' long-running computer nightmare is also causing major problems for local tax assessors, who say tens of thousands of vehicles have been listed in the wrong municipality by the DMV.

The DMV errors also apparently include sending tax assessors listings for vehicles made in 1995 as being 2015 model vehicles, and matching car and truck owner zip codes with the wrong town tax codes. Frustrated local officials say correcting the problems is costing them headaches, extra work and money.

Advertisement

"It's been a hell of a time sorting through it, and there hasn't been a fix from DMV yet," Hartford's assistant tax assessor, Brian Penney, said Thursday.

West Hartford Assessor Joseph Dakers said the more than 500 vehicles DMV reported as suddenly being missing from West Hartford tax rolls would equate to a loss of about $7.6 million in taxable property for the town — unless the lists are corrected. "In light of what's been going on, I'm very uncomfortable with that," Dakers said.

Dakers said he has "high hopes" most of the problems will be corrected when the DMV sends out an updated motor vehicle address list to towns in May. "Otherwise, when the bills go out, it could be chaos," Dakers added.

"DMV and its [computer] vendor, 3M, are working to correct any outstanding issues for the assessors," the department's spokesman, William Seymour, said Thursday in an emailed response to a request for comment. He said DMV has now resolved problems with hundreds of school buses being mistakenly listed in the wrong tax towns.

"We are working with the towns to look at any specific issues town by town," Seymour said. "We are working to correct all problems as quickly as possible in an effort to help assessors meet their deadlines."

Connecticut's motor vehicle agency has been struggling since last year to correct massive problems with its new $25 million computer system. Customer waiting times have tripled, and some motorists were wrongly stopped by police because DMV erroneously suspended driver's registrations. Andres Ayala Jr. resigned last month after barely a year as DMV commissioner.

Most of the public's outrage has been focused on the difficulties faced by individual car owners and motorists, but the DMV computer problems have created concern for tax assessors all across Connecticut.

"We estimate that about 100,000 vehicles were on the wrong towns' tax lists" that DMV sent to municipalities in December, said John Rainaldi, Manchester's director of tax assessment and collection, and president of the Connecticut Association of Assessing Officers. He said most of those appeared to be school buses and commercial vehicles.

Dakers said West Hartford officials realized that DMV's list failed to account for about 90 West Hartford school buses. He said his staff finally located those buses in the small eastern Connecticut town of Ellington.

Coventry Town Manager John Elsesser said 24 Suffield school buses showed up on Coventry's list from DMV. He added that it appears every 1995 model vehicle owned by Coventry residents was listed by DMV as being made in 2015, which, if left uncorrected, would dramatically increase those vehicle owners' tax bills.

"We will have to correct our grand lists," said an angry Elsesser, explaining that will cost his town in staff time and money.

In Hartford, Penney said that "more than 1,000 vehicles that we know of were placed here by DMV in error." The UPS headquarters in Hartford normally garages about 300 of its trucks in Hartford, according to Penney, but the DMV listed that company as having 900 vehicles in Hartford.

"The DMV placed virtually every UPS vehicle in the state on Hartford's grand list," Penney said. "We had to reach out to UPS and ask them to help us out," he said. "We were also missing vehicles, and probably still are, on our grand list," Penney added. "We still have vehicles on our grand list that don't belong here."

Rainaldi said Manchester officials "knew we should have had about 60 school buses" being garaged in the city, but those were nowhere to be found on the list the DMV sent Manchester on Dec. 18.

Advertisement

He said local assessors have been working with DMV and their local computer software vendors to correct the errors, and that most of those 100,000 buses and commercial vehicles listed in the wrong locations by DMV have now been properly assigned to town assessment lists.

In his response, Seymour said there "have always been matchup issues based on data provided to DMV and how it is listed by companies on our forms."

But Rainaldi said, "We've not encountered these problems before."

Glastonbury Tax Assessor Nicole Lintereur said she still isn't sure what the DMV's computer issues really mean for her municipality, although it appears there has been a significant increase in the total value of vehicles listed for Glastonbury. "We can't tell yet. We haven't been told what to look for or how to correct it," Lintereur said.

Some towns, including Simsbury, have thus far found what appear to be only relatively minor changes in the motor vehicle lists sent by DMV.

Assessors are required by law to have their motor vehicle grand lists completed by Jan. 31, but it appears a number of the 169 cities and towns may need extensions, which can be granted by their local chief elected officials. Hartford officials have requested an extension and hope to have that city's grand list ready by the end of February.

According to Rainaldi, his office decided not to seek an extension because it appears the problems could take months to correct. "This problem isn't going to be fixed in February," Rainaldi said.

Rainaldi said local assessors have been meeting with DMV officials to work on solutions to the problem, but said there has as yet been no word from state officials as to when the DMV's tax assessment computer glitches will be fixed.

"I'm sure every town is impacted," said Rainaldi.

Most cities and towns won't send out their motor vehicle tax bills until June, and several assessors said they are confident the problems can be corrected by then.

But delays in getting the problem solved could prove troublesome for local budget officials trying to figure out how much money their municipalities can expect in the coming year.

"Come springtime, it's going to be a little tricky for the budget folks," said Penney. "They want to have a good idea how much in taxes we're going to be collecting."